The Heir of Slytherin VS Algebra

 While I may not have a half-dead man trying to kill me, I would argue that the adversity I and Harry Potter have faced is great enough to prove that no matter how little you may feel you belong, there is somewhere you are welcomed and needed.  

In my own case, I had always tried to take honors classes. Even in middle school, when I couldn’t understand even a bit of math in those accelerated courses, I still would apply the next year, desperate to prove I could be good at it too. Everyone I wanted to be like, the ones that didn’t need to put in any effort to ‘get it,’ all took those classes. I would stay up late trying to memorize formulas and concepts, and it never amounted to anything. In one seventh-grade project where the class had to work on scaling, each hour of the teacher’s honors math classes had to make a miniature model of the school. Walking around aimlessly trying not to mess any measurements up was what I tasked myself with because I was too afraid to take on a more serious role and risk messing up. When I moved on to regular math in high school, it was still for the grade above me. That first day I was so nervous about disappointing myself with what I was capable of. But I ended up loving that geometry class, not for what it taught me, not for the teacher, not for the students, but for the fact that I ended every quarter with an A. It taught me I could be capable of something good, just like those smart kids I wanted to be like. It all just depended on where I fit. I could be capable of something, but what it happened to be was unique to me, and that isn’t a bad thing, just a different thing. 

Harry Potter never fit in with the Dursleys. They had family drama like no other, making their nephew live in a cupboard under the stairs. His uniform never fit, he never fit in with his classmates and cousin, and overall had a really bad schooling experience. But when at Hogwarts, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Sure, there were some pranks between students, and of course, a part of a man’s soul living in one of your teachers as his conduit all to kill you is a little traumatic, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Because it was at Hogwarts where what he was good at, magic, was developed. They weren’t forcing him to be something he wasn’t, and in turn, he thrived.  

So maybe algebra and a dark lord aren’t comparable, but what they prove is this: you might not fit in one place, but there is always somewhere you belong.  

me vs algebra